The official text adopting a programme that must be considered as the political reason of being of a programme. Funding programmes must also be based on a financing decision. This reference to the EU budget is very often, written in the annual workprogramme, or “programme decision” or “regulation” or treaty.

To compete with other major world players, the EU needs a modern efficient economy. Meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, the EU's political leaders set it a new goal: to become, within a decade, "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.”
The EU's leaders also agreed on a detailed strategy for achieving this goal. The 'Lisbon strategy' covers such matters as research, education, training, Internet access and on-line business. It also covers reform of Europe's social protection systems, which must be made sustainable so that their benefits can be enjoyed by future generations. Every spring the European Council meets to review progress in implementing the Lisbon strategy.
In March 2004, the European Council launched a process of revision, which was concretized one year later, in March 2005, by the adoption of a strategy of Lisbon revised and more centered on the growth and employment. The European Union set up a “new governorship” intended to improve the implementation of the strategy.